RIBA Regent’s Street Window Competition with Lululemon

KSR Architects won the RIBA Regent Street Competition to design an installation for Lululemon. Lululemons core values of energy and wellness are focussed on their fictional brand ambassadors, Duke and Ocean, who are central to all decisions and became an integral part of the installation with a window based around each. Through looking at the strength and sculptural form of the human body, and the freedom and movement that it can achieve, it was broken down into organic defining contours and layered them into a contour map. The shape and scale of contours were manipulated to create an intricate and structurally interesting installation that embodied movement and the human form whilst still being bold, abstract and alluring.

The sculptural forms were layered with the colour scheme and branding from Sweatlife to develop a concept that would encompass the principles of the festival, combining an urban edge with the positive energy of Sweatlife into an eye-catching and visually stimulating illusion that responds to your viewpoint as you walk past. No two experiences of the Festival are the same much like your perception of the window.

KSR partner, Guy Ailion, acknowledged the influence of the strong Lululemon brand on their design, We were lucky to have such an incredible brand to work with. The Lululemon team wanted us to push past a product focused display toward something more sculptural and powerful.

The overall result is indeed a sculpture, rather than a piece of merchandising, that stands out on one of the busiest retail streets in London.

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We were lucky to have such an incredible brand to work with. The Lululemon team wanted us to push past a product focused display toward something more sculptural and powerful. – Guy Ailion, Partner

Contours can be seen in both nature and architecture and create beautiful organic shapes so by breaking down the body into its defining contours and layering them we were able to play with shape and scale to create an intricate and structurally interesting installation.

Working with the existing colour scheme and branding from the festival we began to develop a concept that would encompass the principles of Sweatlife and also stand out on one of the busiest retail streets in London – combining urban edge and the positive energy of Sweatlife in something eye-catching and visually stimulating.

KSR worked in close collaboration with retail design agency, Lucky Fox, on the build and installation of the displays which are made of layers of printed acrylic and foam board hung in stepped layers to create the contours and shapes that represent a body in position. These layers are then framed by an outer blank screen to help focus the eye and carry information relating to the festival. Pulsating LED lights hidden in the layers also grab attention and reinforce the sense of movement. The entire display weighs over 200kg and requires a steel frame as reinforcement. As part of the competition rules, it was installed over one night.

Jason Traves, Chief Creative Officer and Founder of Lucky Fox says:

Ensuring we kept the integrity of KSRs beautiful concept and design throughout the build and installation was of paramount importance to Lucky Fox. All too often projects can be diluted when it comes to the build, but with precise construction we were able to truly bring KSRs vision to life.”

The installation is an abstraction of the two human forms engaged in movement, which draws from the energy of The Sweat Life Festival brand.

The overall result is indeed a sculpture, rather than a piece of merchandising, that stands out on one of the busiest retail streets in London.

We wanted to create a bold installation that embodied movement and the human form while still being abstract and alluring.
The two videos below reveal the changing experience of the windows as you walk by.